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Payment Fraud Surge In Cyprus Outstrips Eurozone Trends But Remains Under Control, Says Central Bank

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

August 28, 2025

Overview Of The Spike In Payment Fraud

The Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) has disclosed a significant surge in payment fraud during the second half of 2024. Despite the notable increase, Cyprus continues to report lower fraud levels than the broader eurozone, reinforcing the island’s relative resilience in digital transaction security.

Rising Volumes And Escalating Losses

The CBC report indicates a 34 percent year-over-year increase in fraudulent transactions, totaling approximately 14,000 cases, while the financial impact surged by 26 percent to reach €3 million. In comparison, the eurozone experienced a modest 7 percent rise in volume and a 22 percent jump in monetary value, underscoring a more aggressive escalation in Cyprus.

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Dominance Of Card Payments And The High Cost Of Credit Transfer Fraud

Card payments, particularly through unauthorized online channels, dominated the landscape by accounting for 94 percent of fraud incidents. Although these transactions generated €1.2 million or 39 percent of total losses, the bulk of the financial damage stemmed from credit transfer fraud. These cases, although fewer, resulted in losses amounting to €1.8 million, representing 60 percent of the overall fraudulent impact. Notably, the majority of credit transfer fraud involved authorised push payment (APP) scams, a technique that exploits payer manipulation and now comprises three-quarters of such incidents.

Increased Exposure In Cross-Border Transactions

The report further highlights heightened vulnerabilities in cross-border transactions. Fraud detection reveals that card payments processed outside Cyprus are 25 times more prone to fraud, while cross-border credit transfers present a tenfold risk. These findings spotlight the critical need for advanced security measures in international digital commerce, mirroring challenges seen across global markets.

Effective Protections And Security Measures

Strong customer authentication (SCA) emerged as a notable countermeasure in mitigating fraud, with transactions secured by SCA demonstrating a fivefold reduction in scam incidences. Meanwhile, incidents involving cheques and direct debits remained minimal, reinforcing the targeted nature of the current fraudulent activities.

Conclusive Insights

While the recent surge in payment fraud in Cyprus underscores a growing threat landscape, the overall incidence remains exceptionally low in proportion to the volume of transactions. Maintaining fraud at below 0.002 percent for card payments and 0.01 percent for credit transfers, Cyprus continues to benchmark favorably against its eurozone counterparts. This analysis not only reinforces the importance of robust fraud prevention strategies but also highlights the emerging challenges of cross-border transactions and APP scams in an increasingly digitized economy.

The Future Forbes Realty Global Properties

by News Editor

August 24, 2026

Courts Are Still Applying Old Copyright Rules To AI

AI companies train models on enormous amounts of published material, including books, articles and academic research. Whether using that content without authors’ permission violates copyright law remains unresolved.

Much of the debate centres on fair use, which allows copyrighted material to be used without permission in certain circumstances. Courts consider factors such as the purpose of the use, how much material was involved and its impact on the original market.

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Anthropic Case Sets An Important Precedent

A major case involving Anthropic and a group of authors provided one of the clearest rulings so far. Judge William Alsup found that using copyrighted books to train AI models was lawful, comparing the process to people reading and studying literature before creating something new.

Anthropic was nevertheless ordered to pay $1.5 billion in a settlement. The penalty concerned books the company had obtained from illegal online libraries rather than the AI training itself.

For AI companies, that distinction could prove significant because it separates studying copyrighted material from directly copying it.

Competition Could Be The Key Issue

A case involving Thomson Reuters and Ross Intelligence offers a different perspective. A court ruled that Ross could not claim fair use after using Reuters’ copyrighted material to develop a competing AI-powered legal research platform.

The decision suggests courts may be less willing to consider AI training fair use when copyrighted content is used to build a product that directly competes with the original.

For authors, an unresolved question is whether AI-generated content should be considered competition for the works used to train these models.

The Law Has Yet To Catch Up

US copyright law predates generative AI by decades, leaving courts to apply old principles to new technology. Questions also remain over copyright protection for AI-generated works. In Thaler v. Perlmutter, a court ruled that material created entirely by AI cannot receive copyright protection.

Major AI companies remain involved in copyright litigation, and different courts could reach different conclusions. For now, there is no universal rule: the legality of AI training will depend on the circumstances of each case and how courts ultimately interpret copyright and fair use.